hatchment

hatchment, heraldic memorial to a deceased person. The word is a corruption of achievement, the correct term for the full armorial display of shield, helmet, crest, mantling, wreath, and such additaments as mottoes, supporters, coronets, and compartment as are appropriate. This kind of memorial seems to be restricted mainly to the British Isles, Belgium, and the Netherlands. In England and Belgium the hatchment, or funeral escutcheon, as it is sometimes called, is diamond-shaped, made of wood or canvas in a black-edged frame; on it are emblazoned the arms of the deceased. The hatchment is placed first over the principal entrance of the house in mourning and is moved to the church of burial when the period of mourning is complete (12 months being traditional).

Hatchments developed in England from the 17th century and declined in the 19th, though they are by no means obsolete. Many old English parish churches contain hatchments—for example, St. Giles Church in Stoke Poges, Buckinghamshire.

The background of the device is painted black throughout for an unmarried man or woman or for a widower or widow. For a married person with a surviving spouse, the part beneath the survivor’s arms is painted white. In the case of a bishop or other head of a public armigerous corporation, the sinister side, which bears the personal arms, is painted black under the arms, and the dexter side, under the official arms, remains white.

Frequently, especially on Scottish hatchments, the arms of both parents and sometimes of the grandparents of the deceased appear. A parallel Continental custom is to make circular plaques of the arms of the deceased as well as memorial slabs with the arms of the parents and grandparents upon them. See also heraldic memorial.